Welcome to my blog. HIV prevalence is not a reliable indicator of sexual behavior because the virus is also transmitted through unsafe healthcare, unsafe cosmetic practices and various traditional practices. This is why many HIV interventions, most of which concentrate entirely on sexual behavior, have been so unsuccessful.

It does sound as if Poots thinks that there is a threat from gay people, Africans and sex workers that makes it prudent to have a blanket ban on their donating blood. So how would someone end up with such a view? What has he been reading? Well, UNAIDS' publications might be enough. According to them, heterosexual sex is the dominant mode of HIV transmission in Africa.

Sometimes the institution gives a vague 80-90%, sometimes they just say the 'vast majority'. But most of those infected are either married or in a long term relationship, with the implication being that one or both partners must have been having sexual intercourse with someone other than their partner. After all, how else would there be such high rates of discordancy, which is where one partner is infected and the other is not?

So Poots thinks that "people who engage in high-risk sexual behaviour in general should be excluded from giving blood", and going by UNAIDS' communications, Africans, women, gays and perhaps a few others fall into that group. It's shocking that such bigoted views are held by a person who has probably received some education. But perhaps it is less shocking than the fact that an institution with the sole brief of reducing HIV transmission produces publications that appear to support such bigotry.